Racecars Storm Rod Millen’s Leadfoot Festival

In 2012, Kiwi, off-road racer and Pike’s Peak winner Rod Millen and his wife Shelly (Mickey Thompson’s niece) hosted their first Leadfoot Festival in Hahei, a beautiful beach resort of New Zealand. It was a small, invite-only event celebrating Rod’s 60th birthday but it heralded great things and five years later, Leadfoot has grown to be a fixture on the international motorsports’ calendar.

Leadfoot is primarily a hill climb up Rod’s driveway in the manner of Lord March’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. Using his vast racing experience, Rod built a serious, 16-corner course that pays tribute to Pike’s Peak and other favorite tracks. For the first few years, Rod was unbeatable in his 850hp Toyota Celica but in 2016 son Rhys took top honors in his 600hp Red Bull Rallycross Hyundai Veloster with a time of 49.31 seconds.

This year, the first non-Millen took the podium when Alister McRae went up the hill in just 49.43 seconds. McRae was driving Possum Bourne’s 1998 Subaru WRX STi.

An average of a little over 60mph might not seem fast but when you see the course you’ll understand. It’s narrow and winds steeply up into the forest where the trees are right alongside the track. And, to add to the difficulty, the sun speckles the track leaving you often in the dark and in the wet where the sun doesn’t shine. This is no walk in the park; this is serious stuff.

Because Leadfoot is a serious affair, it attracts serious drivers including Al Unser Jr., the McRae family; Top Gear host, Tanner Foust; four-time Bathhurst winner, Greg Murphy; eight-time Pike’s Peak winner, Paul Dallenbach; and six-time Pikes winner, David Donner. Less serious but no less enthusiastic were driver celebs such as Ernie Namagatsu with his 1959 Old Yeller II Buick Special and Ron Hope with his AA/Fuel Altered Rat Trap. In all, about 130 drivers competed and at a minute a run you can calculate that that is a lot of track time to cram into a two-day event. It definitely delivers spectator value for money.

What is really fun is the diversity of racecars. Everything from beautifully-crafted specials such as Rob McNair’s 1931 Riley with a De Havilland Tiger Moth engine, to the Jaguar-powered 1925 Bugatti 35A of Terry Roycroft—yes, Jag powered. Watching Ian Fitch leap from side-to-side navigating the hill on his 2002 BRM 1000 Super Quad is mind blowing, as are the drifts of Shane Allen (’08 Shelby Mustang), Tanner Foust, and Cole Armstrong (’02 Nissan G35 Skyline). Watching them drift up the hill is exhilarating but watching then drift down in tandem is something else.

It doesn’t really matter if you’re a fan of hill climbs or not, Leadfoot is one of those events that the whole family can enjoy. The next Leadfoot Festival will be held February 3-4, 2018, and you should definitely add it to your bucket list: leadfootfestival.com